Family Room | It's Great To Be Home

The Flip: Staging Sources for the Great Room

January 5, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 20 Comments

You guys, I’ve been smiling all day because of your awesome comments about the flip – you sure know how to make a gal feel good!!

Since I got lots of questions about where all the staging goodies came from, I thought I’d fill you in on my sources with links (where possible and while they last).

sofa – World Market Emerson sofa
area rug – eBay, Braided Jute Area Rug from Natural Home Rugs in 9 x 12
coffee table – Overstock, Tray Top Bunching Table Set (came with 2 end tables that you’ll see later used as nightstands in the master bedroom)
green pillows – Pier 1
paisley pillow – Pier 1, Embroidered Paisley Pillow in Blue
throw – Ikea, Stockholm Throw in Beige (I think)
wooden bowl – Pottery Barn, wedding present, from my home
mercury glass balls (they’re really ornaments – shhhh)- I’m pretty sure I got most these guys from Hobby Lobby a few years ago (with some extras from my mom), from my home

wood table and benches – World Market, Napa Dining Table and Benches
bar stools – World Market, Elana Banana Leaf Bar Stool Set (bought individually)
glass hurricane – Ikea, from my home
woven decorative balls – Home Goods, from my home

green plate – Ikea, Trivsam dinner plate
woven place mat – Ikea, Snar place mat
linen napkin – Pottery Barn, Linen Hemstitch Napkins in White, wedding present, from my home
flatware – Bed Bath & Beyond, Lenox Pearl Platinum stainless steel flatware, wedding present, my every day flatware

leather club chairs – Overstock, Tivoli Dark Brown Leather Arm Chair
paisley pillows – Pier 1, Embroidered Paisley Pillow in Blue
woven basket & pinecones – from my mom’s home
canvas artwork – Ikea, Pjatteryd

I think that’s everything, but let me know if there’s something I missed, or if you have questions about any of the sources!

The Flip: The Great Room, Then & Now

January 4, 2011 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 80 Comments

We did it!! We reached the finish line and our old pal the flip is now on the market and FOR SALE!! Cue the confetti and streamers. :)

Now that every inch of the flip has been fluffed and puffed beyond all measure, I think it’s high time to see how far it’s come over the past 3 months!

Without a doubt, the great room underwent the biggest transformation. It was a gigantic undertaking to figure out how to combine four different rooms (den, kitchen, breakfast room & enclosed patio), get the vaulted ceiling figured out, fix the flow of the kitchen, and a billion other things.

Here’s how the great room looks now:

And here’s a reminder of how these four rooms (that we combined) looked when we bought the house on September 29, 2010:

What do you think?

This room gave us the most headaches during the renovation, just trying to figure out how to make the most of this gigantic space, but in the end I think it’s the room that most buyers will fall in love with.

Maybe I’m being sentimental, but I can just imagine an entire family hanging out in this room, kids doing homework at the kitchen table while the dad reads his newspaper at the peninsula and the mom whips up something tasty for dinner. Can you see it?

Okay, now it’s time for a bunch of gratuitous great room shots. I got a little camera happy. Hope you don’t mind. :)

Whew, enough pictures – I’m ready to hear what you guys think!

Confetti image via Flickr.

The Flip: Kitchen Cabinetry

October 25, 2010 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 10 Comments

Cabinetry is so important – especially in a kitchen, and especially in a kitchen with an open layout. Not only do the cabinets need to offer lots of storage and functionality for cooking and casual dining, but they need to be beautiful and help create a workable flow throughout the entire kitchen, family room and dining area (some would call it a great room, so let’s go with that). That’s a tall order!!

The cabinetry at the flip is going to be beautiful but it’s been very tricky to figure out. We’ve been through about 4 rounds of drawings, and realized at the last minute that we didn’t have enough space between the kitchen and the family room to have bar stools on the back of the island, so then we were scrambling to find another place to put them.

After lots of consideration, here’s a rough rendition of the layout we created for the great room:

(There are upper cabinets on the back elevation of cabinetry but I couldn’t figure out how to put them in the rendering. Sorry, you’ll have to use your imagination!)

We decided to do a peninsula at the end of the back wall of cabinetry, and I think it’s going to be awesome – much better than our original plan, actually. By extending the cabinetry towards the French doors and then extending the peninsula out into the space, the room will feel more balanced whereas before everything was skewed towards the fireplace wall.

We’ve been agonizing over where to place pendants – over the island or over the peninsula? I think we’ve finally decided to hang them over the island but who knows, that could change again. :)

This is what the back elevation of cabinetry will look like:

This peninsula will extend from the right side of the pantry and will be parallel to the French doors:

When you’re facing the fireplace from the kitchen, this is what the island will look like:

And here is the view of the island from the family room:

Whew!! We went through lots of trial and error, but I think we finally got it right. I’ll be on pins and needles for the next few weeks, waiting to see how the finished cabinets look!